Czech opposition parties are pushing for legislation allowing citizens to decide on various matters in public referendums, with one of the proposals opening doors to the potential EU exit referendum.
Opposition party ANO of the former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (Renew) wants the Constitution to be amended to ensure citizens can decide on matters unless these relate to security or international relations.
According to its proposal, a referendum question cannot concern government, internal security or international commitments. It would need the Constitutional Court to confirm that it does not violate the constitutional order. Only then can the initiators of the vote collect 400,000 signatures, Czech Television reported.
At the same time, the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement (ID affiliated) filed its own proposal, allowing people to also decide on security or international issues.
“For us, this is the main agenda item. We will always vote for a referendum,” said Radim Fiala from the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement – the only party in the Czech parliament calling for the country’s exit from the EU.
Czechs are more Eurosceptic than most of their EU counterparts, as only about half are openly pro-European.
While the proposal to introduce public referendums has thus raised concerns that it could lead to a vote to leave the EU, most ruling parties oppose such an idea.
“It only increases political tensions in the country and always serves as an opposition way of drawing attention to itself,” Marek Benda, chairman of the parliamentary club of Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s Civic Democratic Party, told Czech Television.
(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
Source: euractiv.com
